US CDC has new Youth Sports initiative to prevent repeat brain injury

Our Houston sports injury attorneys note that the school year has started once again and student athletes are once again busy practicing for big games and winning seasons. If they shine in high school sports, then they could get noticed by college recruiters and jump-start eventual pro sports careers. So aspiring youth athletes feel a lot f pressure to go that extra mile and rise above their peers. They’ve been known to hide injuries so that they could get back on the field right away and not miss any important plays.

But that natural tendency urge to ignore an injury and keep playing can take a serious cumulative toll on a young athlete’s health and abilities. Repeated brain injuries for instance can impair cognitive skills, slow motor and cognitive functions, and lead to permanent neurological damage.

A concussion, as you might know, is a brain injury caused by a bump or a blow to the head. Some degree of bleeding and swelling of tissue inside the skull follows a concussion. And an injury victim might experience headache, dizziness, or nausea among other symptoms. Our Houston sports injury attorneys point out that even an apparently mild blow or bump to the head could cause serious injury.

In rare instances, “second-impact syndrome” (SIS) could lead to the athlete’s collapse and death within minutes. SIS, first named in 1984, occurs when someone suffers a second head injury before symptoms from a prior head injury, like a concussion, have ceased. The second traumatic head injury might occur days or even weeks after the first injury and the impact might seem minor and relatively mild.

The injury victim won’t necessarily lose consciousness from the second blow, and might only appear slightly dazed. The athlete might try to shake off the injury and get back in the game. Our Houston sports injury attorneys emphasize that because the first injury hasn’t healed yet, cerebral edema and herniation result. And this causes the athlete to suddenly collapse and possibly die shortly afterward.

Recognizing the dangers of head injuries in determined young athletes, the U.S. CDC (Centers for Disease Control) developed an in-depth “toolkit” for youth sports programs. The toolkit is called the “heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports” initiative, and its purpose is to help teach parents, young athletes, and their coaches how to prevent, spot, and respond to a concussion.

Estimates place the annual number of sports and recreation related concussions in the U.S. at almost 4 million. Several states have passed laws designed to ensure the removal of student athletes from sports activities when they display signs of concussion injury. And the U.S. CDC’s Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports initiative supplies important information on traumatic brain injury concussions to young athletes, their parents, and their coaches.

The CDC toolkit includes necessary fact sheets on concussion, a coach’s clipboard with concussion facts, a handy reminder magnet containing facts on traumatic brain injury, a poster designed for administrators and coaches of youth sports, and a quiz on concussion so that parents, coaches and student athletes alike can test what they’ve learned about the critical subject of traumatic brain injury. You can download the CDC’s toolkit materials online from their website at www.cdc.gov.

Our Houston sports injury attorneys urge you to learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of concussion. If your child receives traumatic brain injuries playing school sports, the long-term financial consequences to your family could be serious if symptoms worsen and permanent damage results. Your child might require long-term medical care, physical rehabilitation, and other therapies. You might be eligible for financial compensation to help meet the costs of the expenses resulting from the injury.

Contact the dedicated Houston sports injury attorneys at Denena & Points for a free initial consultation regarding your case. We have more than 14 years of in-depth experience guiding injured victims and their families to the full financial recoveries they deserve after their traumatic injuries. Let us put our skill and experience to work for your recovery. Call or contact us online today.